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Saturday, June 15, 2013

Usually when I write a blog entry, I just feel like writing. I don't have a topic in mind. This entry is no different, but that doesn't mean I'm not excited about what I came up with.

10 fictional women I would seriously consider switching places with.

And that's all the introduction you're getting.

1. Leslie Knope (Parks and Recreation)

I really love this show. I really love Amy Poehler. I really love Leslie Knope. She's funny, caring, always put together even when she's hallucinating from a crazy bad case of the flu, she can do anything, she loves her jobs, she loves her home, she loves waffles, and she's surrounded by awesome people.

I think I'd be the least hesitant to become Leslie Knope out of any of the women I picked. She kind of has the best life ever. Not to mention the fact that she's married to Ben Wyatt. If I could make the perfect guy, it would be Ben Wyatt. Really, it's uncanny just how much he embodies my ideal.

2. Galadriel(Lord of the Rings)

Even though Cate Blanchett was the absolute perfect choice for Galadriel, I'm going to specify that I want to be book Galadriel and not movie Galadriel. Reason being, Galadriel is way more hands on in the books. Not so much Lord of the Rings, but in other books and the expanded mythology. Pictured above, you see her laying to waste Dol Guldur. This happened during the War of the Ring (events during Return of the King). The elves of Lorien and Mirkwood had been laying siege to Dol Guldur for days and Galadriel just walks up to the gate with arrows flying towards her, gently pushes it open, and proceeds to destroy it before causing trees and flowers to grow. She's pretty badass. She's also basically the matriarch of Elvendom.

As a side note, I contemplated including Eowyn in this list. I love her a lot ("I am no man" gives me chills every time whether I'm reading or watching it), but her fate in the end is to get married after all that talk about wanting to fight. Boar-ring! I love Tolkien, but that doesn't mean the man knew how to write women. Pretty sure killing the Witch-king of Angmar, while CRAZY awesome, wouldn't have filled her sense of adventure so much that she goes back on everything she says she wants.

3. Daenerys Targaryen (A Song of Ice and Fire aka Game of Thrones)

It's true, the first 13 years of her life totally sucked, but once she finds herself and her footing, she's basically the coolest character ever. Or up there at least. She's an exiled queen fighting her way back to her kingdom, and she kind of rocks at it. Pretty much any positive adjective you can think of in a leader is one that describes her.

4. Willow Rosenberg (Buffy the Vampire Slayer)

You may be wondering why I didn't choose Buffy. I'll counter that with: would you want that kind of responsibility? Saving the world over and over again. Yeah, she had plenty of help, but ultimately it was Buffy's job and therefore her fault if she didn't stop any number of apocalypses. With Willow, you get power without the fate of the world resting on your shoulders. Except for that one time when she tried to end the world. Then there was that time she saved it... Okay, maybe a bad example, but Buffy was always the leader. I wouldn't want that. Plus if I had to choose between being super strong or being a witch, I'd choose the magic.

5. Rose Tyler (Doctor Who)

I had to pick someone from Doctor Who (for obvious reasons) and I had to pick someone from the David Tennant years (also for obvious reasons). My first choice was Donna, but there's no way I'd want her ending. Martha's too mopey so that leaves Rose. As far as companions go, she's not bad. I like her a lot actually. She was the first companion in the New Who so her being in love with the Doctor wasn't old yet. Plus her progression is pretty awesome. She starts out as a pretty clueless 19 year old and turns out to be the awesome woman you see above. She holds her own next to the Doctor and turns out to be basically his human equivalent in an alternate universe. She's pretty awesome... and I wouldn't say no to a David Tennant clone.

6. Princess Leia Organa (Star Wars)

I don't need to explain this, right? Even if you haven't seen Star Wars (why would you do that to yourself?), anyone born after 1977 intrinsically knows how awesome Leia is.

7. Janet "The Jackal" Colgate (Dirty Rotten Scoundrels)

With hair and an outfit like that, who wouldn't want to be Janet? Mostly I want to be the greatest conwoman in Western Europe and con two conmen.

8. Veronica Mars (Veronica Mars)

She's sassy, she's smart, and she looks like Kristen Bell. There's no choice to make here. Granted, the events that play as catalyst to her becoming who she is are terrifying and I wouldn't wish them on anyone, least of all myself, but still. I really do love her so much and being her would rock my socks.

9. Molly Gibson (Wives and Daughters)

All the best women in period pieces are great readers. I felt like I should include a period character because period pieces are awesome. My first instinct was Elizabeth Bennet, but her life isn't all that great when you look at it from a wide lens. She has a mediocre (albiet educational) first 20 years then marries a rich man. She probably spends the rest of her life going to parties, reading, having babies, walking through lavishly furnished rooms and beautiful woods. Granted not all of that sounds half bad, but I'm guessing that kind of lifestyle would get boring after a while. Especially for someone as clever as Elizabeth Bennet.

Enter Molly Gibson. Her first 20ish years are spent comfortably. She reads, learns, gets into science, meets interesting people... it's your basic upper middle class lifestyle for the times. Yes, she still gets married, but after she does that she goes to Africa to study insects with her husband. And she wears pants! In the 1800s! She's wearing pants!

10. Hermione Granger (Harry Potter)

Come on, you knew this was coming. I'd probably prefer book Hermione rather than movie Hermione just because I like the books better. Really though, how many times did this girl save the necks of Harry and Ron and countless others? She saved the world and made crazy terrible sacrifices to do so. And she's super smart, which is less of a bonus and more of a requirement for any fictional woman I'd want to trade places with. I feel like that should go for everyone... who would want to be a stupid character?

Tuesday, June 4, 2013

I feel weird writing this post right now because I'm at a point in my life where my thought process is along the lines of, "men schmen!" That being said, I'm still a fangirl and I still have a thing for men who don't actually exist. Here's my current batch.

Ben Wyatt (Parks and Rec)

I think the reason I wanted to do this particular post is because I miss Parks and Rec. If I hadn't just rewatched the entire series (except season one, of course) a few months ago, I'd do that now.

But oh, Ben Wyatt. He just seems like the kind of guy you could sit down with and have an intelligent conversation about anything. Plus his love of things like Game of Thrones,Batman, and Star Wars make me happy.

I'm sure it helps that I kind of have a crush on Adam Scott.

Spike (Buffy the Vampire Slayer)

Always and forever. Before you roll your eyes and say, "of course she likes bad boys - she's a woman," just know that I don't like bad boys. At all. I don't know why I love Spike so much, but I do. He's gruff, sometimes sweet, a killer, a lover, a (terrible) poet, funny, and loyal. Several of those adjectives are not even a little bit appealing to me, but there it is. Something about his combat boots and leather trench coat just make me smile.

Jon Snow (Game of Thrones)

I have more of a crush on book Jon than show Jon, but that's probably because in the book we get to hear his thoughts, whereas in the show he barely talks and the only real way to know what he's thinking is to read the books. Even so, Kit Harington is not at all displeasing to look at.

As I've said, I don't know how likely it is that my love of this story will continue if Jon dies. He's the underdog you want to win everything and be the happiest person that there ever was. He's a long way from either of those things, but still. You can't help but love Jon Snow.

Plus that little *ahem* cave scene in book/season 3... We'll just say that bumped him up a few spots on my list.

Daenerys Targaryen (Game of Thrones)

Current lady crush right here. These gifs alone should make you all sorts of intrigued. That man she ordered her dragon to burn was a very bad man, by the way.

While Dany wasn't my favorite character towards the beginning of the first book, she soon grew so much and became so awesome that it was impossible not to love her. She starts out with nothing but a terrible brother who she was terrified of and becomes the strongest character in the series (in my opinion). She goes conquering from city to city while freeing slaves and telling her men not to rape or harm innocent people. Her thoughts are with her people and she is one of the best leaders I've ever read. This girl is the bee's knees.

Tyrion Lannister (Game of Thrones)

Last GOT character, I promise. I'm just fully immersed in the world of Westeros right now.

Peter Dinklage is quite a bit more attractive than the way Tyrion is described in the books, but you don't get as much of a sense of how crazy smart and cunning he is in the show. Cause really, this man thinks of everything. The man is a genius, has a great military mind, and knows how to play the game to get a lot of what he wants (his stupid father Tywin is the main one that screws the pooch for him). He's loving to those he cares about (a complete romantic, if you ask me), and respectful of those who show him the same curtsey. Still holding out for him to be Lord of Casterly Rock, but I've got a feeling that's not likely to happen.

Nick Miller (New Girl)

The jump from Tyrrion Lannister to Nick Miller probably couldn't have been bigger.

Nick embodies a lot of what I hate in a man in real life. He's lazy, unmotivated, has no idea where he's going in life, grumpy, emotionally closed off... But what are TV shows for if not to take us out of ourselves for a while?

Despite all these flaws, Nick Miller is one of the funniest characters on television right now. Just flat out hilarious. This is mostly why I want to suck his face.

Will Graham (Hannibal)

This is a little weird since for the most part he's both emotionally unavailable and unstable, but it is what it is and I'm just rolling with it. He's a super interesting character and that coupled with Hugh Dancy's face is apparently enough for me to develop a crush. I guess after Dexter, Walter White, Don Draper (not to mention Hannibal himself)... it's fun to see someone who has the potential to be a sociopath fight that off with everything he's got. And really, of the two main men I could potentially develop a crush on in this show, wouldn't you rather it be Will Graham than Hannibal Lecter?